


The Dalek Was Right

by RagaMuffinSundrop



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Humor, Romance, Rose/Nine - Freeform, Slight Rose/Ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 06:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4553415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RagaMuffinSundrop/pseuds/RagaMuffinSundrop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where POTW was not an ending but a beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dalek Was Right

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Doctor Who or the characters used within. I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter One: **Help!** _I need somebody Not just anybody You know I need someone_

She had to get back to him; this was Rose Tyler's single driving thought when the TARDIS took her back to London. The Doctor and Jack were trapped on the game station fighting a battalion of Daleks and she was stuck her with Mickey and her mum, eating chips. She didn't belong here. She belonged there with them to help them to die with them if necessary but the point was she belonged with them. The Doctor had taken that choice from her, damn him.

She knew the Doctor would argue he had made the choice that was in her best interest but Rose never let anyone tell her what her best interest was and she wasn't going to let a nine hundred year Gallifreyan with an escaped mental patient grin be the first to start. She was planning on telling him that after she had smacked him a few hundred times for sending her away and gave him a few kisses for good measure.

Rose wasn't going to let herself give up on getting back to him. The Doctor would never give up on her and she wouldn't allow herself to give up on him.

There had to be something, there was always something, Rose thought to herself as she walked and then ran back towards the TARDIS. She hadn't looked hard enough the first time, she would look again and she would keep looking until she got it right.

Rose was about halfway there when she was suddenly grabbed from behind and pulled into an alley. Panicking, Rose tried to remember everything Jack had taught her in the way of self-defense. She was feeling so emotionally wrought out and drained that she couldn't remember anything until she felt the wall at her back. By then it was too late.

She was staring up into the brown eyes of a stranger. In an abstract corner of her mind that wasn't frozen with fear she wondered why the brown eyed, brown haired stranger was wearing trainers with a brown pinstriped suit. It was an odd look but it seemed to suit him.

"Who are you what do you want?" Rose asked trying to sound braver than she felt.

It had been a long time since she had felt this scared. She realized almost instantly she hadn't felt this scared since before she met the Doctor. His presence had kept her from being truly terrified.

To her surprise, the stranger smiled at her and it was a very tender and sweet smile. He was looking at her as if she was the most precious thing in his world. Not at all the kind she'd expect to see on the face of a person who intended her harm. There was something about the smile that reassured her and seemed oddly familiar.

"Who am I isn't as important as why I am here." The stranger told her.

If it would have been anyone else Rose would have demanded an answer but like the reassurance she felt at his smile, she felt instinctively she could trust him and let him leave his answer at that.

"Why are you here then?"

His answer was so unexpected she almost fell over in shock.

"Because Rose Marion Tyler, the Dalek was right."

The Dalek was right. How could he know about the Dalek and what it had called her when it had been trying to fight the Doctor? "What, how, who?" Rose asked looking up at him. The stranger put one of his long fingers on her lips to silence her and the touch was cool, his skin cooler than hers, like the Doctor’s, it was cool but it still felt as if it burned her.

"Not important, I have to ask you two questions, all right?" Rose nodded breathless from his touch.

"How much do you want to get back to him? What are you willing to do for him?"

Rose didn't need to consider his questions. Her answer was immediate and from the heart.

"More than anything and everything."

The smile was back. It was warm, tender, and proud as if she'd given him the answer he wanted to hear.

He was smiling down at her  as he brushed her cheek in a way that reminded her of her Doctor cradling her face in his large, work roughened hands. His touch told her that he cared.

"Good. Rose you can save him use the TARDIS' heart." He said.

“How?” Rose knew the TARDIS was alive and obviously she had a heart but Rose had no idea how to reach it.

“You may not have A levels but you are brilliant and far more clever than you give yourself credit for. You will figure it out.”

“All-right.” Rose agreed feeling like she should be frustrated with his lack of straight answers but accepting it all the same.

The stranger nodded.

"Good luck, my Ro--, I mean Rose."

Rose’s eyebrow rose at his slip of the tongue. It almost sounded like he was about to call her his Rose, something only the Doctor had ever done.

He started to walk away as did she but Rose was stopped suddenly by a hand wrapped around her arm. She was spun around to face the stranger and was quickly brought into a hungry kiss.

Rose found herself responding instantly. Her arms wound around his neck as her lips parted at the touch of his tongue to her bottom lip asking permission to enter. He pulled her closer. Slender fingers tangled in her hair tilting her head to an angle that suited him. A sinewy wrapped around her waist pressing her to him. Rose’s arms went from around his neck to her hands resting on his chest nails lightly scratching at the skin under his suit jacket and shirt. A hand gripping her rear and a groan in the kiss told her that what she'd done was appreciated and wanted.

Just as oxygen started to become an issue for her the kiss was broken. He hugged her tightly lifting her off her feet and swinging her around before placing her gently back on her feet. He ran a hand down her cheek and smiled at her again with that warm, tender smile that touched her heart.

Rose wanted to ask him why? Why had he done it? Why had it felt right? Why could he kiss her like that? Give her a kiss that was passionate, welcome and oddly familiar. Yet he could not give her his name?

The questions most of been evident in her eyes because he spoke.

"If you're successful I'm never going to get to do that again. I couldn't resist."

With those cryptic words another hug and a wink he left.

After Rose got the heart of the TARDIS open everything became a blur, golden light was at the edge of her consciousness spilling over into her thoughts. She was herself but now she was so much more, she was the Bad Wolf. She was unstoppable and indestructible. It was glorious feeling and more than a little terrifying. She doesn't know all of what's she's done, of what they, herself and the part of the TARDIS that formed the Bad Wolf, have done.

Everything is still tinged with gold and now there's singing and a voice. The voice is begging her to let go, telling her it's time to stop. Rose loves the voice; the Bad Wolf trusts the voice. She commits one final act, Bad Wolf had one last life to save, one last piece of happiness to bring to her Doctor. She calls him her Doctor because he is hers as much as he is Rose’s Doctor. She created herself to protect him, protect their love. She tries to tell him of this life she has gifted him with but it's too much and the Bad Wolf's world is dark, sleep brought about by a kiss.

                                                                            ***

"Should have never asked her to come along in the first place, damned stupid ape, foolish woman. Should have left her to beans on toast and Rickey the idiot." The Doctor said grumbling as he carried the unconscious body of Rose, his Rose, into the TARDIS.

He wasn't sure why he was bothering protesting Rose being here. It's not as if she was awake to hear his insults. Even if she had been awake, it wasn't as if she would have believed them. The shine of tears in his eyes as he carried her into the med lab negated his angry words. Mercifully, the TARDIS had put the med lab close and he had her in there and on the exam table within minutes.

After an hour of running every kind of test imaginable on her and even creating a few for good measure, Rose was still unresponsive. He'd done it, the Doctor realized. The one thing he had never wanted to do, the one thing he'd tried so hard to avoid. He'd killed Rose. Her body was still alive, an empty breathing shell but Rose, the light and life that she was, was gone. He was the destroyer of worlds but never had it hurt to destroy a world as much as it did when he destroyed his own. Not Gallifrey, his planet, though that hurt tormented him daily. The world he had destroyed was far more precious, his world with Rose and Jack.

Jack was dead, the Doctor had heard him die and one of his hearts had shattered. The fact that Jack had died fighting had made him proud of his companion but hadn't eased his pain at Jack's loss. The Doctor had lied to himself saying he would get over it eventually, he wouldn't. Jack had been special in a way few companions were. He'd had companions come and go, all remembered, some mourned, some thought of fondly. Jack and Rose had been different they may have started out as companions but in the end they were his family and as necessary a part of him as the TARDIS. Now one was dead, and the other might be dying. He supposed in the irony that was the universe loosing the two people closest to him was fitting punishment for the oncoming storm, the destroyer of worlds.

                                                                                             ***

He shouldn't be here, was the first thing Jack realized as he stood up. He remembered getting shoot by the Dalek. He remembered the thin metallic cry of EXTERMINATE and his own smartass to the end of time response.

"I Kinda figured that."

He remembered holding his arms wide waiting for death. He remembered the pain, all twelve seconds of it, and then it and he were gone. Yet here he is and he feels fantastic, to borrow the Doctor's favorite word. The Doctor! He had to find the Doctor. Jack knew that the Doctor had sent Rose away with the TARDIS to keep her safe. If the Doctor was still around, and Jack was sure he was even if he wasn't sure about the man's form, they needed to find a way off the game station.

He ran back to where he had last heard from the Doctor. He expected the space to be empty. Instead, he saw the most beautiful and confusing sight in the universe. The TARDIS was in front of him.

Several questions filled Jack's mind at that moment. The biggest ones being how and why, but then he realized it didn't matter at the moment all that mattered was that he was home. Now it was time to find his family.

                                                                                     ***

 

There were footsteps echoing in the corridor of the TARDIS. The Doctor looked about him startled. No one else should have been able to enter his TARDIS, not without his permission or a key.

"Are you doing this?" The Doctor asked his magnificent ship.

Her response was immediate and negative. This wasn't her doing. Had someone found Jack's key? He supposed it was possible but in no way probable. The Doctor had intimate knowledge of the damage that could be done by a Dalek's weapon and if Jack had the key in his pocket when the Doctor heard him die, there was nothing left that would be of use. He didn't think Jack had given it to anyone, knowing the Doctor had sent Rose and the TARDIS away, what would be the point? Ready to remove whoever has come into his ship uninvited in as rude of a way as possible, the Doctor gave Rose one last look and walked out of the room. He wasn't prepared for what he found.

"You can't be here, I heard you die." The Doctor said. Jack was standing in front of him looking a bewildered as the Doctor felt. For a moment an old comedy routine ran through the Doctor's mind. "He's not pining he's passed on." He was glad Jack appeared to be only pining. Jack looked no worse for the wear otherwise and was unmistakably alive.

"I heard you die." The Doctor said walking toward the other man. This time the words were more for himself than Jack. If he had been a lesser being he would have said the concept of seeing Jack alive after hearing him die might have driven him mad.

As it was, he could feel himself reeling into shock. Jack was alive; Jack was here. Oh Rose, The Doctor thought to himself as Bad Wolf's words. "I bring life" came back to him. This is what she had meant. She'd rescued Jack. He didn't have to ask why she had done it. Rose loved Jack as he loved Jack. Bad Wolf was trying to protect her pack.

 

 

Chapter Two: **Lucy In The Sky With The Diamonds** _Somebody calls you You answer quite slowly A girl with kaleidoscope eyes Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes…_

"Yeah, about that, I felt me die, Doc. And yet I'm here. Care to tell me why?" Jack asked as the Time Lord walked toward him.

Where was Rose? Why hadn't she come out from wherever she was to hug him, kiss him, smack him and order him not to do something as stupid as dying again? Surely, she was here. If the TARDIS was here, Rose had to be as well. Jack knew the ship was amazing, but he doubted the TARDIS could have brought herself back without a little help. More importantly he didn't think Rose would have let the TARDIS leave without her. As the Doctor came closer and Jack got a better look at the Gallifreyan's face dread swept over him.

The Doctor's eyes had a blank dead look about them and he had obviously been crying. The last time Jack had seen such a look on the Doctor's face was when they thought Rose was dead. Oh God, no, not that, not her. The look in his eyes now was a thousand times worse.

"Doctor?" Jack asked not sure how to voice his question. He couldn't voice it because he wasn't sure he could stand the answer. Yes, people died in battle, the military man in Jack knew that. People, were people, they weren't and never could be Rose.

"I lost you." The Doctor said finally, his voice little more than a heartbroken whisper. Jack isn't sure if the Doctor means himself or if he is in his own way telling Jack that Rose is dead. Jack finds it doesn't matter, not anymore because the Doctor's actions are telling him that the grief from either is one in the same. To lose either of them would crush the Doctor's hearts. Jack isn't sure what to do but knows he has to help the heartbroken man in front of him. Hoping he's doing the right thing Jack cradles the Doctor in a hug, like he would for their Rose if she needed comfort. When the Doctor starts to cry again if a few of the tears that fall on Jack's shoulder are actually his own, neither comments on it.

                                                                                             ***

Rose sat up slowly. What was she doing in the med lab of the TARDIS? The last thing she remembered clearly was meeting the stranger outside the chippie having him tell her that the Dalek was right and she could save her Doctor. Had she done it? Was the Doctor alive? Had the Daleks been defeated? Where was the Doctor? She had expected him to be here with her. Normally if she had the slightest reason to be in the med lab she'd have to pry him out of the chair at the end of the bed with a crowbar. Why wasn't he there now? Was he injured? Rose's mind was full of questions to which she had no answers. She was starting to panic a little. Where was the Doctor?

"Is he here?" Rose asked addressing the TARDIS.

Normally, there would be a hum or a light to indicate the answer to her question or a way to guide her search. R _ose, he is in the control room._ The voice in her head was completely unexpected. The TARDIS had never spoken to her before in words. _Why can I hear you now?_ Rose asked the TARDIS. _It is time_ , the TARDIS said simply. Rose decided she would ask for a more detailed explanation later at the moment she wanted her Doctor. She needed to see him, touch him, breathe him in, and reassure herself that he was indeed here whole and safe. Trying to ignore the headache that was doing it's best to control her movements Rose slowly made her way out of the med lab.

The sound of crying reached Rose's ears before she reached the control room. Who was crying on the TARDIS? Rose hurried her steps almost becoming a run as she identified the broken, sobbing sounds as coming from the Doctor. If the Doctor was crying, something must have happened to Jack. Rose had to fight her tears of her own. She had been aware that Jack might not make it through the fight. She'd been aware that none of them might make it through but the harsh truth of that gave cold comfort now. The universe needed more men like Jack. Men that were strong enough to be heroes.

I miss you Jack, I hope you know I love you, Rose thought sadly as she walked into the control room. She wouldn't allow herself to even think of her love in the past sense. If Jack was gone her love for him would still exist as long as she did. The Doctor had taught her that, love didn't have to be in the past and you never had to forget.

The room was dark and in shadows. She wanted to ask questions when she got to the control room but she stopped cold any thought of questions gone when she saw the Doctor and Jack. The men stood together with the Doctor with his back to her in Jack’s arms. She could hear his sobs. Oh my Doctor, who has hurt you? Rose wondered. What could bring her proud strong Gallifreyan to tears? Their stances looked broken and although she couldn't hear any noises coming from Jack the way his shoulders were shaking Rose suspected that he was crying as well.

If Jack was here and the Doctor was here she couldn't understand what had gotten them so upset. Rose knew that some of people who had been at the game station with her were probably dead; this wasn't the usual reaction from either the Doctor or Jack. They mourned life when it was taken but never like this.

That's when a thought hit Rose with such horror she cried out. They thought she was dead. The men were crying as if they had lost a part of themselves because to their way of thinking they had.

                                                                                               ***

The Doctor was the first to realize she was in the room. He'd heard the faint sounds of her trainers on the floor and was able to catch just a whiff of the vanilla rose perfume she wore.  Then he heard her cry out. It had taken his fractured hearts and mind a minute to catalog and process all he had heard smelled and when he had he hadn't wanted to believe it. He was afraid that he was hearing and smelling only what he wanted because he was so desperate to keep Rose with him. He turned slowly hope building up in little drops, can't hope too much or it would crush him. It had taken his senses less than a minute to realize she was there, he hadn't imagined it.

"Rose," Her name was a whisper on his lips and then a shout as he was running across the control room to take her into his arms.

"Doctor, I'm sorry, I'm here and I'm all-right. Look at me, please look at me, and see that I am here."

Rose didn't know why she was apologizing; maybe it was because the Doctor was holding her as if he needed her to keep his own hearts beating and his soul surviving. She'd be bruised in the morning. He's gripping her so tightly but at the moment Rose cannot bring herself to care. Feeling the powerful man shake as he held her and the splash of hot tears on her shoulder as he knelt in front of her was hurting her almost as much as he was hurting. She whispered words of encouragement and comfort in his ear, trying to get him to look at her. Rose thought if he could just see her face, touch her, he would realize that she was right there with him. She's always been right there with him, if only he realized it.

The Doctor wasn't the only one in need of comfort, Rose realized. Jack stood staring at her. A look on his face as if he's seen a ghost and Rose thinks in what is probably the worst way for it to happen Jack has, the ghost of her. She wanted to comfort him but Jack offered her a weak imitation of his usual dazzling smile and left the room before she could say anything. She'd seek him out later; right now all of her energy and attention belonged to the man in her arms.

                                                                                  ***

Gradually his hold loosened and the Doctor pulled himself away from her far enough so that he could see her face.

"Rose, my Rose." He said her name as if it were a prayer and skated his fingers over her face thumb stopping to caress her cheek.

"I thought I lost you." He said drinking her in.

 

"I'm here and always will be, told you that before." Rose said softly.

Yes, she had told him and he wanted to believe her. He knew she meant what she said but he also knew about the road paved with good intentions and where it inevitably led. He hated to be the one who took a gentle soul like Rose down that road but he could no longer send her away.

If he had doubted that before it was vividly clear now. Rose's actions should have killed her. No one was meant to look into the heart of the TARDIS. She should be dead. When he had kissed her, what he thought was going to be the last thing he ever did and not ever having kissed her was the one regret he didn't want to take with him, he had seen her thoughts briefly. He hadn't been surprised to see that Rose had indeed realized what she was attempting would quite possibly harm her. That was par on the course for his Rose; she put the well being of the whole world and this case the universe before her own needs. She had done the same thing at Satellite Five when he had tentatively suggested that they could leave. Rose had called him on it saying he wouldn't do it. She had been right. On his own, he wouldn't done it but he would have done it she had asked. It hadn't occurred to her to ask because to her way of thinking it was the wrong thing to do.

He had been surprised however, at the depth and magnitude of love she had not just for the universe or the people directly affected on Satellite Five, but for him. He'd always been sure she cared about him. She wouldn't be Rose if she didn't care but he hadn't realized she loved him so very much. It humbled him. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had ever loved him like that if anyone ever had.

 

 

Chapter Three: **And I Love Her** _A love like ours Could never die As long as I Have you near me Bright are the stars that shine Dark is the sky I know this love of mine Will never die_

He had come to another realization while watching her in the med lab. He promised himself when she awoke, he wouldn't let himself think if, it was when. When she awoke, he'd strangle her for putting herself at such risk or lock her in the TARDIS for safekeeping, maybe both. He also promised himself he would tell her how he felt. He was a coward and the idea of admitting to those feelings to someone scared him, but the possibility of losing Rose and never having her know her love was returned tenfold scared him more. He had no choice he had to tell her.

"Rose, I ought to strangle you." The Doctor said with a hollow laugh.

"What you did was the stupidest I've ever witnessed. You could have been killed.”

He could feel Rose about to protest from the way she tensed in his arms.

"However,"

 

The Doctor laid a cool finger across her lips to silence her protest and Rose gasped a little as the feel of her skin ignited him. It was just like it had been with the stranger. Cool skin had left fire on hers where he'd touched her.

"However, my Rose it was also the bravest thing I've ever seen and for that and for the sheer joy and wonder of having you here I want to kiss you."

He could see from the way her eyes sparkled at his words that she wanted him to kiss her as well. He would kiss her and soon; he had to get this out of the way first. The Doctor took her chin in his hand to keep her eyes level with his own as he spoke next.

"I've not done a thing in my lives to deserve you, I know that. I also know I need you. You've brightened my world and healed me in ways you wouldn't understand if I had a hundred years to explain them, mostly because I don't understand them myself. I'm hoping we can learn them together."

He brought his face closer to hers. His breath was warm on her cheek. "I'm hoping you'll give us the chance to learn them because I love you."

He would have said more, if he could but instead decided to let his actions speak for him as he kissed her.

Rose was surprised by the feeling of his lips on hers but responded as immediately as she had before with the stranger. Her arms wrapped around him and she used the position to pull herself into his body. The touch was as familiar as the stranger's though it shouldn't have been. The kiss was something she had been hoping and desiring, almost as long as she had known him but it was something she never thought she would get to experience.

The reality quickly surpassed all her hopes. She'd never been kissed like this before. He's kissing her as if he did indeed have a hundred years to learn how her lips felt under his. His kiss was slow but unhesitant and very tender. He wanted more, she could feel that in the kiss.

He's hungry for her as she is for him but he's taking the slow route to appeasing the hunger. Instead of bruising her lips and his own in hard kisses that were meant to incinerate in seconds. He's building the fire in her blood slowly, letting it spark but not burn. His hands are on her face, holding her to him. Her arms are around his waist pulling him closer.

She wondered absently if it would be possible to stay like this in the Doctor's arms for the rest of her life. She wondered if he knows how much she loves him. _Love you Doctor, my Doctor_. Rose thinks to herself. She's surprised when she hears his voice very clearly in her mind. _Theta, and I love you too. We could stay like this, my own, but after a while it would get a bit uncomfortable. I'm not as young as I used to be you know_. Rose felt the Doctor's smile in her mind as she realized she had heard him and he knew it.

 _Theta is that your given name? It's lovely. How can I hear you? Is this like hearing the TARDIS?_ Rose asked him lips still happily engaged in the act of kissing and being kissed by him. Whatever reaction she expected at her words it was not the one she received.

The Doctor abruptly stopped kissing her and pulled away from her. The look in his eyes was as close to panic as she had ever seen. It frightened her as well.

"You can hear the TARDIS, how does she sound?" The Doctor asked her urgently. "

She speaks to me like you do or Jack does." Rose said feeling confused. Why was he freaking out about this? She'd been surprised when the TARDIS had spoken instead of the usual hum that she used when communicating with Rose. Surprised yes, but pleased.

She didn't understand what there was to panic about. Hearing the TARDIS shouldn’t be a bad thing.

"Rose, no human can understand the TARDIS speaking." The Doctor said in an anguished voice.

Rose stared at him stunned into silence. If no human could understand the TARDIS’ speech what did that make her? Was she not a human being anymore?

"My Rose what has happened to you?"

The answer didn't come from Rose but from behind him.

"The answer is simple, your companion is no longer human." A voice as familiar as his own said coolly.

"What are you doing here?" The Doctor asked icily as he and Rose turned in the direction of the voice. He rose to his feet, pulling Rose with him and placing her behind him.

"What's going on, Theta?" Rose asked from behind him. Her voice was steady but the tight grip she had on his waist told a different story.

"Rose, these are some of my past selves. You know that I’m the ninth Doctor. That was fourth regeneration,” here the Doctor pointed at a man with curly hair and an almost floor length multi-colored scarf. "That was my sixth self." This time he pointed at a man who wore an odd hodge-podge of mismatched clothing. "And that I'm assuming is my tenth self, perhaps?"

The Doctor asked gesturing to the man Rose had met in the alleyway in London. The Tenth Doctor nodded and gave Rose another one of the tender smiles along with another cheeky wink.

Rose let go of the Doctor and walked over to Ten. She heard her Doctor protest but ignored him. “It’s fine, Theta.” She called back over her shoulder. “He won’t hurt me.”

"You told me how to save him, thank you." Standing on tiptoe she kissed Ten softly, the kiss wasn’t chaste but was more affectionate than passionate unlike the kiss in the alley. She broke the kiss touching Ten’s face as he had hers before she moved back to stand by her Doctor taking his hand in hers and linking their fingers to show their unity. She was still scared but she wasn't going to let her Doctor try and keep her out of this, she hadn't saved him to lose him now to fear.

"What do you mean _my Rose_  isn't human?" The Doctor asked emphasizing her name and his possessive adjective when it came to her in retaliation for Six calling her his companion.She was so much more and he wouldn't allow anyone, not even one of his past selves to diminish what she was by calling her a companion. He saw Six back up a bit at his heated words and gave the other him a feral smile. He allowed Six to see the madness that was always at the edge of his eyes.

The Doctor very rarely had conversations with himself, it was too bloody confusing but enough of his former selves had voiced the opinion that he was the maddest, most violent one of them all that the Doctor knew some of his other selves were a little afraid of him. He had no problem using that fear to his advantage now.

Ten was the one that spoke, his voice gentler than Six's had been. His tone was almost loving as if he was speaking to a beloved child who had forgotten something important and needed to be reminded of it as lovingly as possible.

"Theta, no one can look into the heart of the TARDIS, no one was meant to, and you know that. When Rose looked into the heart of the TARDIS, it looked into her as well. She's not human, not any more but she is still your Rose, you'd do well to remember that."

"What have you done to her?" The Doctor demanded his words an angry shout.

Six and Four cowered back a little at his shouting but Ten stared back at him levelly. There was no longer any trace of affection in his tone. His stance indicated that he was clearly not intimidated by the Doctor’s temper and was willing to give it back as good as he got.

"I didn’t do anything to her. I have done only what I was meant to do. You knew when you met her that she was more than she seemed. You knew she was destined to become the Bad Wolf. Just as she was destined to be your companion."

"You told her how to tear into the TARDIS? Were you trying to kill her?" The Doctor asked as Ten's words and Rose's own earlier comment registered in his brain. "

She could have died, what if the legend had been wrong. You could have killed her." The Doctor asked still shouting.

Now Ten was angry enough to raise his own voice.

"Theta! Stop now. You know damned well that I would never have hurt her. She’s as important to me as she is to you. I love her just as much as you do. We all love her as much as you do. She’s a part of all of us as much as she’s a part of you."

"You don't think taking her humanity away from her hurts?" The Doctor asked Ten.

He knew the legend Ten was referring to, everyone on Gallifrey had heard the story. Time's Champion would meet his equal. The one in all time that was his match in every way. His match would take the form known as The Bad Wolf, an immortal guardian of the universe.

He didn't want Rose to suffer being immortal, losing all that she loved and having no control over it. He had known while she would one day leave him that he would always be for her. He could handle the idea of being alone for the rest of his existence, it was a fitting punishment for himself but he didn't want to see that happen to Rose. If she was truly immortal now, and the signs were very good that she was, she would be alone without him and the thought tore him.

"You can't do that to Rose." The Doctor protested. "

You can't, she'll be alone forever. If you are me then you know I cannot allow that."

Ten gave him a sad smile but refrained from answering.

This time it was Four's turn to speak.

"She won't be alone, she'll have you."

The Doctor sneered. "Yeah maybe for a hundred years if I get really lucky on the whole regeneration thing. What then?"

Next to him he could feel Rose falter and he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"You aren't going to regenerate again, Theta. Your cycle will begin and end with your ninth regeneration." Four told him.

He wasn't going to regenerate; this nightmare of a conversation was getting worse and worse. Next to him Rose stiffened up and he knew Four's words had hurt her. It added up to one more reason to hate his former and now no longer future selves.

"Explain now!" The Doctor growled at them.

Normally, he'd welcome death but he didn't want life taken from him now that he had Rose. She gave him a reason to live.

"Because of your actions on Satellite Five, you shall be Time's Champion, the last Time Lord for time immortal."Ten explained.

Ten Walked over to Rose and hugged and kissed her again before turning to Nine and doing the same thing.

"Be well." Four called out as Ten walked back to join him and Six. 

With those words Four, Six and Ten disappeared leaving the Doctor alone with Rose. Not alone, he realized. Never alone again, they would be together until the end of time.

"How long you gonna stay with me?" Nine asked a now smiling Rose.

"Forever." Rose told him launching herself into his arms. She had told him forever before but now she could have the chance to prove it to him.

The End


End file.
